Taking cognizance of the alleged violation of the Odisha State Awards for Films Rules, 2010 in the final selection of the awardees, the Orissa High Court on Monday postponed the 31st edition of the ceremony scheduled to be held tomorrow and ordered the revaluation of the entries for the award.
“The ceremony scheduled to be held tomorrow will stand postponed. State, through its concerned functionary, will re-evaluate all entries for awards. On such re-evaluation, the result will be made known to the petitioner and all concerned. In event petitioner reports to this Court that his grievance has been taken care of or there is required adjudication, the ceremony will be held post order of disposal of the writ petition”, the single judge bench of Justice Arindam Sinha ruled on Monday posting the matter for hearing on 7 January 2022.
The petitioner Bobby Islam, who directed Odia film ‘Chabirani’ Chabirani based on the real-life theme of horrifying gangrape and murder case that took place in 1980 in Jagatsinghpur district, had alleged that “his film was original and merited consideration for the awards; it was not selected in any of the categories”.
The jury on 5 November last selected Khusi for awards in best actor, best actress, best editor and best child artiste categories although it is a remake of a Korean film ‘Hope’. The jury had also selected ‘Golmal Love’ in the category of best comedy even as it was a copy of ‘Carry on Jatta’, a Punjabi film. The movies selected for the award also infringed the provisions of the copyright act, the petition alleged.
The High Court had earlier issued notices to the Secretary and Director of Department of Odia Language, Literature and Culture, Chairman of the jury Surendra Sahoo (cinematographer) and other jury members Pranab Kishore Pattnayak (musician) and Tripura Mishra (actress).